| aion | Add Friend |
Member Since: Sep 22, 2003
Rank: 418
Rated 37 releases, average: 4.24
Location: quietly lingering in the land of noise
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aion's groups (15)
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Reviews:
Front 242 - Geography - 29-Oct-03 11:10 AM
During the second half of the 80's Front 242 was of major importance on the swedish electro scene, although being belgian. Geography is one of the best albums from Front 242 with its basic electronic sounds and beats, lovely metallic ambience in some tunes and most of the time minimal amount of variations in both music and vocals. Of course the very belgian english accent is there, in all its cuteness and so typical for the 80's electro vocalists from Europe (belgian, german, scandinavian etc). Although Front 242 lyrics are both in english, german and french at times. The vocals are most of the time attempting to be basic and raw, then suddenly switching to become soft and kind of melodic, which is at times quite funny. Many of the voice samples used on this and other Front 242 albums are recycled in electro tunes on the scene today.
Geography is of course a child of its time and should be regarded for what it is. However, it made a difference back then and is representative for a sort of electro sound being very popular in the mid 80's around northern Europe and Scandinavia. Geography should definitively be taken into account when talking about the scene at that time, so listen to it and give Geography 2 & U-Men a go!
Obviously some of the tunes from this album are one of my favourites when it comes around for a ride down 'memory lane'.
Tyskarna Från Lund - 29-Oct-03 11:07 AM
The translation of the band name is 'The Germans from Lund'. Lund is a city in south Sweden in which all of these guys went to the University and where they also became a part of the theatre company 'Varanteatern'. Eventually, as a part of the theatre production, four of them started this synth-pop/electro band just for fun. However, with the song 'Global Fussball' which they made as a drift for the World Football Championships 2002 they became immensely popular in Sweden and were played even more than the original song made for the swedish football team. Since then they have done extensive touring, released one album and several cd singles of which 'Achtung X-mas!' from 2002 is very suitable for the electro oriented Christmas celebrations!
The lyrics are more or less nonsense in a mix of english, german and swedish and extremely funny since they use all the common mistakes in german and english made by swedes. The four members are good singers and adapt their voices to whatever style they want to make a drift with. The music is more or less constantly a reference to old synth-pop and electro bands from the 80's and 90's and it is obvious that they have great knowledge of the scene! But, TFL have also made synth-pop covers of such songs as the metal classic 'Still loving you' which in their version is truly bizarre and it's an even more hilarious experience to watch them play it live!
The four members of Tyskarna från Lund have adopted one style each of the typical 80's synth-pop/electro characters roaming around at the venues back then. The four boys all have their own style when it comes to haircut, clothes (although basically all the same in order to fit together as an electro band) and even behaviour, just like all boy-bands of today with the exception that these are into synt-pop. Just watching them is extremely funny and offers a sometimes not so flattering understanding to what the music and youngsters were like in the 80's! For those growing up with the electro scene at that time in Scandinavia and maybe even northern Europe, a show with Tyskarna från Lund is a must.
Aphex Twin - Donkey Rhubarb - 29-Oct-03 11:01 AM
It is hard to find anything happier and lovely kickin' than the first track Donkey Rhubarb! Play it any day and you'll have your own little party right there! The video is really fun and worth watching since it's as entertaining as the track. The rest of the album is calmer and the interesting and nice work done with Philip Glass shows the potential of Aphex Twin.
Einstürzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch - 29-Oct-03 10:53 AM
If you are new to the old-school industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten this album might be a good start. Not very extreme but still with some of that desperate feeling that their music has. The first track is a nice monotone thingy with a choir talk-singing german lyrics and the second track, Yü-Gung (Fütter Mein Ego), is definitively a party tune suitable for any dance floor. Track 7 includes the lovely line 'This was made to end all parties' in a comforting noisy surrounding and it could very well turn out to serve as a party killer, even though
EN lovers seem to interpret the line in absolutely the opposite way.
Some of the tunes are dominated up front by the german lyrics well worth reading and accompanied by noise and rhytmics made up by samples from all sorts of metal stuff and machines for drilling, cutting and you name it. It should be mentioned that the album is rhythmically a bit square and less experimental than their earlier albums.
Halber Mench is not by far the most industrial, harsh, controversial (lyrics) or chaotic album by EN. However, the album may serve as good start for the beginner and it was very popular when released in 1985.
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Vrioon - 29-Oct-03 10:42 AM
The feeling of immense sadness overwhelms me when listening to the beautiful music by Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The web of music is so thin, so fragile as if it might break any second and yet it brings a feeling of true perspicacity, is really touching and soothing.
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